In other rugby news on the same weekend, former National Wheelchair Rugby team athlete Chris Daw skipped the Canadian men's curling team to a silver medal at the World Championships in Switzerland. Full info and photos can be found on the World Curling Federation web site. Congratulations to all involved!

The Canadian team is now short two players, as The Rock returned home for some minor surgery, and Say Luangkhamdeng returned home for a family emergency. We hope all is going well for Say and his girlfriend, who was involved in a motor vehicle accident.

In pool play at the Mini-International Tournament, we met three teams: Australia, Texas, and Lakeshore.

In our first game against Australia, the team went down 34-32 without our perennial leading scorer, Garett Hickling, who sat out the game due to a nagging injury. Teammate
Ian Chan took up the slack, scoring 17 goals, while Dave Willsie scored 9, and three others scored the remaining six goals: Steve (3), Martin (2) and Al (1).

The game vs. the world's best club team from Lakeshore was not our best showing, as it featured a loss of ball control and far too many unforced errors. Lakeshore won by a comfortable 13-point margin, 43-30. Canadian goal scorers included Dave Willsie (9), Steven Dunn (7), Ian Chan (4), Mike Whitehead (4), Al Semeniuk (2) and Daryl Stubel (1). Garett did not play.

The remaining game in pool play featured Team Texas, without their star 3.5 player, Steve Pate. Garett was able to play the first half, and a young Canadian team saw a lot of court time in the second half. Leading the way to a high scoring 53-46 Canadian victory were Dave Willsie with 18 goals, Ian Chan with 9, Garett (8), Patrice Simard (6), Steve (4), Al (3), Mike Whitehead (3) and Daryl with the remaining two.

The Semi-Final game against the Australians was quite enjoyable. Garett played in the first two quarters, with the younger players again seeing a lot of action in the second half. Ian Chan and Al Semeniuk looked especially brilliant, earning the Canadians the right to play Lakeshore in the final. The goal scorers were: Dave Willsie (13), Al Semeniuk (10), Garett Hickling (9), Ian Chan (8), and both Mike Bacon and Dave Gagné with 1 goal each.

The Final was a seesaw match which saw each team take the lead only to lose it to a determined effort by the opposing team. The Lakeshore crowd, in their awesome new facility that expanded in October of last year, was taken aback by the play of the Canadians, who looked like they might beat their home team. Although victory was in the grasp of Team Canada, a few unforced errors sealed the game and the tournament in favour of Lakeshore. The final score was 25-23 for the home team, but the Canadians held Lakeshore to their lowest scoring game in four years. There were only three Canadian goal scorers in this game, which saw Dave Willsie score 10, Al Semeniuk score 7, and Garett Hickling score 6.

Until today, I hadn't heard anything more than what was posted on the USQRA site by the US National Coach:

POOL RESULTS :

"Australia by 2 over Canada (Garrett not playing)
Lakeshore over Texas by double digits (No Zupan or Pate)
Australia over Texas by double digits (No Zupan or Pate)
Lakeshore by 12 over Canada (Garrett not playing)

Sorry I was not there yesterday (Saturday)but the results were Lakeshore over Australia 43-32
Canada over Texas
Canada over Australia by 9 without Garrett for 2nd half
Lakeshore over Texas by 7
Sunday results:
Australia 48 Texas 40
Lakeshore 25 Canada 23

Canada is for real! Garrett played the entire game. Congrats to all, looking forward to the Derby. Should be some great rugby."

— Kevin Orr, USA National Team Coach

Comments like that are always encouraging to see. :-)

We ended up having only four chairs modified to the latest international standards, and another four repaired after a hard fought tournament in Warm Springs.

The team is now settled in Montgomery, Alabama, and practice has been going well for the players, but not so well for the chairs. The practice gym is a bit small, and the guys are playing with a lot of intensity. For some unimaginable reason, when you combine a smashing Canadian speedster with a brick wall, the wall seems to win. Luckily for us, our host is well connected in the city, and the mobile welding crew from the city of Montgomery was able to come to our rescue... twice!

The concept of "southern hospitality" is living up to its reputation! Thanks Fred!

The guys are pumped for their re-match against the powerful Australians in the first game of the Mini International Tournament, set to start tomorrow at 2:00 CST.

As the team got settled into their new hotel in Montgomery, Alabama, some people were still feeling elated. Stevie Dunn got classed down by the international panel, and is now classed as a 3.0 player for international competition. There are still some variations in the classification systems used by the IWRF and the USQRA, so Stevie will continue to be a 3.5 player in the USQRA for the Casco Bay Navigators, for whom he is a regular player.

The good people at Eagle Sports Chairs were able to make the necessary modifications to seven of our chairs, and they now meet the latest clarification of the bumper rules. As I write this, Cathy is driving out to their factory, located just outside of Atlanta, to pick up our modified chairs. Many thanks to Barry Ewing for the speed at which he was able to do this work for us!

Tonight, the team will be reviewing a great deal of videotapes in preparation for their next games against Lakeshore, Texas, and the Australians. Over the next few days we have a few practices scheduled, courtesy of our gracious host, Fred Thomas. The first game for our players will be Friday at 2:00, followed by a second game at 6:30. All games are to be held at the Montgomery Therapeutic Recreation Center.

The schedule for the Mini-International Tournament looks like this:

Friday Afternoon @ MTRC:

2:00pm Game 1 Australia vs. Canada
3:30pm Game 2 Team Texas vs. Lakeshore Demolition
5:00pm Game 3 Australia vs. Team Texas
6:30pm Game 4 Lakeshore Demolition vs. Canada

Saturday Morning @ MTRC:

11:30am Game 5 Australia vs. Lakeshore Demolition
1:00pm Game 6 Canada vs. Team Texas
2:30pm Game 7 1st in pool play vs. 4th
4:00pm Game 8 2nd in pool play vs. 3rd

The tournament will then move to Birmingham for the final two games:

Sunday Morning @ Lakeshore Foundation:

TBA Game 9 3rd/4th place game (Losers of games 7 & 8)
TBA Game 10 Championship (Winners of games 7 & 8)

~That is all~

The final game for the Canadians featured the Nordiques against Australia. The 'Diques were pumped for the match as were the Australians, with a lot of pride at stake, as well as a nice trophy. The Canadians served notice to the world that they we're back in form, and ready to once again be a medal threat at the international level.

The score was tied at the half, with the Canadians shining until the final moments of the 1st half, when the Aussies took advantage of three Canadian mistakes and converted them into three goals to tie things up at 20-20. The 'Diques came out and dominated the 2nd half, playing a solid, strategic game. When the score clock ticked off to end the game, the Canadians had a four goal margin, winning 39-35 with their split squad against the Paralympic silver-medal winning Australians.

Dave Willsie from London, Ontario led the way with 14 goals, followed by Garett Hickling and Al Semeniuk with a dozen goals each. Martin Larocque scored the other goal for the Nordiques.

In the lead up game to the 3rd place match, the 'Diques lost to the USA Stars by a score of 34-29. Dave Willsie led the scoring for the Canadians with 16 goals, with a double teamed Garett Hickling scoring another 5. A pair of Canadian 2.0's, Martin Larocque and Al Semeniuk, scored 4 goals each in the game. The USA Stars ended up losing in overtime in the finals to the USA Stripes in a high-scoring 55-54 game.

In the final game for Canada Ice, the young Canadian team fell to the Belgians by a score of 39-36. Ian Chan led the scoring with 20 goals, followed by Mike Whitehead with 10. Patrice Simard and Mike Bacon scored three apiece to round out the Canadian scoring.

The Canadian team, along with the other teams who were present, received a written clarification on the bumper rules, and is currently having several of their chairs modified by Eagle Sport Chairs to fit the wording of the document. The modifications to the chairs will be done in time for the Mini International Tournament in Montgomery.

Today is a travel day for the team, as they prepare to leave from the Roosevelt Centre to their new location in Montgomery, AL. It is about a two and a half hour drive from Warm Springs. While in Montgomery, they will be participating in a Mini International Tournament with some serious competition from the #1 ranked team in the US, and the #2 ranked team in the world. This tournament features Canada, Australia, the Lakeshore Demolition and Team Texas. At this point, I do not know the composition of Team Texas, but when I do, I will post the info to this site.

Everyone enjoys close game, and today, the fans were not let down. Three of the games featured 1-goal margins of victory, with the USA Stripes winning twice by a single goal, while the Swedes squeaked by the Brits by the same amount.

The USA Stripes advanced to the gold medal championship game by defeating a determined Australian team by a score of 43-42. The Swedes secured a top-half place at the tournament by edging Great Britain by a score of 34-33.

In games featuring our Canadian players, our split squads had similarly split results, with the Nordiques earning bronze by defeating the Australian National Team by a score of 39-35, and the Ice slipping to the Belgians by a three-point margin, 39-36. The Nordiques finish the 10-team tournament in 3rd place, while the Ice placed 8th.

The full results of Pools “A” and “B”, displayed in pool format, can be found here, along with a list of the composition of each team involved in the World Rugby Challenge. The complete scores from the tournament, which concluded yesterday with an intra-squad USA final, appear below:

Saturday - January 19, 2002

Game 21: 1st A vs. 2nd B - USA Stripes vs. Australia 43-42 (o.t.)
Game 22: 1st B vs. 2nd A - USA Stars vs. Canada Nordiques 34-29
Game 23: 10/9th Game - Germany vs. Switzerland 35-33
Game 24: 8/7th Game - Belgium vs. Canada Ice 39-36
Game 25: 6/5th Game - Great Britain vs. Sweden 33-34
Game 26: 3rd/ 4th Place Game - Australia vs. Canada Nordiques 35-39
Game 27: Championship Game - USA Stripes vs. USA Stars 55-54 (t.o.t.)

Friday, January 18, 2002

Game 12: Sweden 37 - Canada Ice 31
Game 13: Canada Nordiques 39 - Great Britain 31
Game 14: USA Stripes 52 - Switzerland 22
Game 15: Australia 48 - Germany 40
Game 16: USA Stars 31 - Canada Ice 15
Game 17: Great Britain 39 - Belgium 35
Game 18: Sweden 41 - Germany 32
Game 19: USA Stripes 40 - Canada Nordiques 31
Game 20: USA Stars 43 - Australia 25

Canadians played in several games on Thursday and Friday, with mixed results. The Pool Results have been kept up to date with the latest Canadian scores.

Game #8 featured Canada Ice up against the Germans. The young Canadian players really started to connect and everything came together for an excellent team effort in a 43-34 victory. 3.0 classified player Ian Chan led the charge with a whopping 20 goals, followed by similarly classed Mike Whitehead with 14 of his own. Patrice Simard, a fast 1.5 from Québec City scored 5, while team veteran Daryl Stubel earned 4 more for the Ice.

Game #10 had the Nordiques play against their Calloway Cabin neighbours the Belgians, and it proved to be an extremely well executed and tactical game on behalf of the Canadians. The final score was 50-37 for the 'Diques and Coach Soares was quite pleased with the Canadian's performance. Garett Hickling led the rush with 14 goals, followed closely by Dave Willsie's 13 goals and Steven Dunn's 11. Martin Larocque of the Ottawa Stingers earned 8 more for the Canadians, with Al Semeniuk of SaskSquash earning another 4.

In Game 12, early on Friday morning, the Ice had a slow start with some unforced errors in the first three minutes of the game. After that point they played the Swedes evenly, but the margin held pretty much throughout the entire game, with the Swedes winning by a score of 37-31. Ian Chan and Mike Whitehead scored 26 goals between the two of them, with four other players earning the remaining 5 Canadian goals.

The second game of the day saw the Canadians control the play the entire game. This game featured the Nordiques against the British. The Brits have a new 3.5, reminiscent in size and speed to Chris Daw who was a member of the Canadian 2000 Paralympic team. However, 0.5 Canadian Dany Bélanger from Montréal was still able to knock him to the floor with a jarring hit. Team Captain Garett Hickling led the way with 17 goals, while dynamo 2.0 David Willsie rushed in for 14. The Rock scored 6 more, and Stevie Dunn earned a pair. The final score was Canada Nordiques 37 - Great Britain 31.

Game 16 was a tough one for the Ice, with solid hits, high pressure and a lot of swarming wearing down the small Canadian team. Steve Pate from the American team played a strong game and led his highly motivated USA Stars to a solid 31-15 win over Canada Ice. Ian Chan scored 6 of the Canadian goals, while Daryl Stubel and Mike Whitehead earned 4 and 3 goals respectively. Say Luangkhamdeng (2.5) and Dave Gagné (1.0) scored one goal apiece.

There was some controversy over the size of the Canadian bumpers today, with 4-5 defensive chairs being seriously questioned by the international technical officials. More on that story tomorrow...

In games earlier today, Canada Ice were first to the floor to meet the #5 seeded Swedes, while the Nordiques followed up by playing the British team seeded in 6th position.

According to one of the Nordiques players, the Ice did not get off to a good start and had some difficulty catching up, although they did narrow the gap to only two goals at one point in the game. However, the experienced gained by the Ice, which features many international rookies, is invaluable. Given the small number of players on the split Canadian team, the Ice players each received maximum of floor time. It is also encouraging to see that they remained competitive against a strong international team like the Swedes.

The Nordiques fared better against their overseas opponents, as they ended up defeating the British National Team by a 5 or 6 goal margin, which is the same margin that the Ice had in their loss to the Swedes. Both games featured big hits from the Canadian heavy hitters to the delight of the crowd and the photographers.

The next Canadian game comes in a few minutes at 2:30 today; with the North American continental rivals meeting each other in split squad action. Ian Chan’s Canada Ice team meets Steve Pate’s undefeated USA Stars team. In a later match, the Canada Nordiques, led by Garett Hickling, will meet the #1 seeded team that goes by the name of USA Stripes.

The Pool Results will be kept up to date as the results become known.

Crossover games will commence on Saturday morning with the 1st ranked team in Pool "A" meeting the 2nd ranked team in Pool "B" at 09:00.

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2002

Game 1: Australia 44 - Canada Ice 36
Game 2: USA Stripes 41 - Belgium 30
Game 3: Canada Nordiques 39 - Switzerland 22


Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002

Game 4: USA Stars 35 - Sweden 30
Game 5: USA Stripes 43 - Great Britain 37
Game 6: Belgium 54 - Switzerland 29
Game 7: Australia 43 - Sweden 35
Game 8: Canada Ice 43 - Germany 34
Game 9: Great Britain 60 - Switzerland 26
Game 10: Canada Nordiques 50 - Belgium 37
Game 11: USA Stars 50 - Germany 26

I just got off the phone with Cathy. Her reports will follow later tonight courtesy of our team computer guru Jared Funk and will include complete game scores from Games #1 - #11.

In Pool "B" action, Australia beat Sweden in a very close match, while the first upset of the tournament occurred in Pool "A", where the 9th seeded team from Belgium defeat the Swiss, who were ranked 8th going in to the World Rugby Challenge.

The Nordiques were the next Canadians to play in Game 3 of the tournament. The USA Stripes team took out our cabin-mates from Belgium 41-30 in Game 2.

This Canadian team consists of a pair of 3.5's from opposite ends of the country: Garett Hickling and Steven Dunn, respectively from Kelowna, BC and Halifax, NS, complemented by two 0.5's from Montréal (Dany Bélanger) and Winnipeg (Jared Funk). Lineup combinations abound on this team, as three other players classified at 2.0 round it out: Al Semeniuk from Saskatoon, David Willsie from London and Martin Larocque from the Ottawa area.

The 'Diques went out to a 10-1 lead early in the game vs. the Swiss, and ended up winning comfortably by a score of 39-22. Both teams sported a thin roster of only seven players, with the Swiss returning with four veterans from their 2000 Paralympic Team. There are five members of the 2000 Canadian Paralympic team on each of our two teams.

Garett Hickling led the Nordiques with 14 goals, followed by Stevie Dunn with 9 and Al Semeniuk with 8. Martin “The Rock” Larocque scored 5 goals and Dave Willsie earned another 3 to complete the scoring blitz for Canada.

The next games for the Ice will be at 3:00 pm EST (GMT -5) against the 7th seeded Germans, while the 'Diques taking on the #9 seeds from Belgium at 6:00 pm.

Stay tuned for some game reports from the Canadian Team Manager, Cathy Cadieux.

The Canadians are split into two separate teams at the World Rugby Challenge: Canada Ice and Canada Nordiques. The Ice are made up of 3.0 Ian Chan, 3.0 Mike Whitehead, 2.5 Say Luangkhamdeng, 2.0 Daryl Stubel, 1.5 Patrice Simard, 1.0 Dave Gagné, 1.0 Mike Bacon, and 0.5 Daniel Paradis.

The Ice were the first Canadian team to see action at the World Rugby Challenge, and team captain Ian Chan set the tone early against the top-seeded Australians, with Chan sending Brad "The Kid" Dubberley to the floor with a massive hit. The Aussies were seeded 2nd overall, while the Ice were ranked in 10th spot.

Despite the score listed on the USQRA site, the Aussies beat the Ice 44-36 in an entertaining and fun game full of solid displays of skill by both teams. The small size of the Canadian team took its toll, and a few costly turnovers were the result. Ice Captain Chan from Richmond, BC led the Canadian attack with 15 goals, followed by his London, Ontario teammate Mike Whitehead with 8. Other Canadians to score were Patrice Simard (6), Mike Bacon (3), and both Say Luangkhamdeng and Dave Gagné with 2 goals apiece.

Top athletes and team members from both the USA and AUS complimented Canadian Head Coach Joe Soares on the improved skill of the Canadian players.

Of the ten members of the Australian National Team who are at this tournament, nine are returning athletes from their silver medal winning team at the 2000 Paralympics, with the lone exception being a 3.5 classified player, Grant Boxall. They continue to be well coached by Terry Vinyard.

The Swiss come in to Warm Springs with a small team of seven players, four of whom are veterans of their Sydney 2000 team. This include 3 of their top-4 Paralympic scorers, with a notable addition of 3.5 player Cornel Sonderer who may be replacing the Swiss 3.5 who made 32 turnovers at the Sydney Games. The coach of the Swiss team at the World Rugby Challenge was their assistant coach in Sydney.

It now seems that a few other Canadians had a few adventures in travelling. In addition to Say's "random" search at the Fort Lauderdale airport, both Patrice and Steven were similarly "randomly" checked. As a result of all this, they got in to Warm Springs around midnight instead of the mid-afternoon.

Dany Bélanger was told en route to Atlanta that his every day chair had gone missing, so he stayed behind at the Toronto airport to track it down. It eventually showed up at the proper place in Atlanta, and Dany took the next flight down to Atlanta. There was damage to the chair, and both Jared Funk and Stéphane Charbonneau had to put in claims for damage to some of their equipment as well.

The location is rustic and peaceful, with the Canadians located in one of the Conference Cabins at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Centre for Rehabilitation. Eventually, members of the team may be able to check out some of the nearby attractions, including the "Little White House" that FDR kept while in office.

Canada Ice will be taking on the powerful Australian national team at 5:00 today, while the Canada Nordiques will meet the Swiss in an 8:00 game.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be keeping the Canadian Wheelchair Rugby community up to date with what is going on with our National Team. They are now on their way to start a three week tour of the US. Before anyone else starts humming the theme from Gilligan's Island, I am hoping that nothing goes wrong with the travel, but there is always something that happens at the last moment.

On any given trip there is always something that makes it memorable. Perhaps at the time you just want to have it over and done with, but upon later reflection, these are often the best intriguing moments of the trip. As I write this, I've just learned from the CWRC High Performance Coordinator, Marco Dispaltro, that three of our athletes are going to be delayed on the Road to Atlanta. These are the same athletes who went down to the States a week early in order to take in a Division II tournament in Fort Lauderdale as a pre-comp warmup.

At the Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida, National Squad member Say Luangkhamdeng was randomly chosen to be searched, and both Patrice Simard and Steven Dunn were held back from the same flight, possibly due to over-bookings by the airline. They will get into Atlanta at 7:20 this evening rather than their scheduled time of 2:40. C'est la vie.